


What the Hell Happened to Jonah?

by MerMagicAnaLily



Series: Hellhole and other stories [2]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Alcoholism, Drug Use, Hospitalization, Other, Overdose, Trauma, near-death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22674565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerMagicAnaLily/pseuds/MerMagicAnaLily
Relationships: Andi Mack/Amber, Buffy Driscoll/Marty, Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen
Series: Hellhole and other stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630132
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	What the Hell Happened to Jonah?

_ “Amber,” Jonah Beck hugged her while she was standing at the soda fountains, getting more coke. “I can’t believe you’re getting sent all the way over to another country.” _

_ “I’m not even being *sent* away Beck,” she said. “I’m following my dreams, the same way you are.” _

_ “Well, we’re all going to miss you,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. _

_ “You were the first person to see the good in me, you know,” Amber said. “When we dated?” _

_ “Well, now I’m the one who has to apologize,” he said. “I was a pretty lousy boyfriend then.” _

_ “Yeah, you were,” she said. “But, you’re getting better. You’re learning that there’s more to being a boyfriend than the dates and the kissing.”  _

_ He chuckled and nodded. He seemed to radiate sunshine from his smile. “Maybe I shouldn’t date for a while, and just be a good friend.” _

_ “I think that’s a good decision you’re making there,” she said. “Just be yourself and learn a bit more. You’ll do great like that.” _

**********

“So, how’s your prescription treating you?” Jonah’s mother asked as he scarfed down his breakfast.

“It’s good. I feel a lot less anxious, generally. Seeing Mr. Goodman and getting these meds really helped.”

“That’s wonderful, sweetie!” She kissed the top of his head. “And how are you and your friends going to handle Amber and Andi being gone?”

“Well…one less awkward thing for me,” he joked lightly. 

“Jonah!”

“I’m kidding mom,” he said. “I love Andi and Amber separately, as long as they’re never my girlfriends again. And I’m gonna miss them a lot.”

“Alright, alright, go! Go to school before you’re late.”

“Okay, okay, bye mom. Love you!” 

* * *

~Jonah Beck, please come to the Principal’s Office~

“Damn, Jonah, did you already get in trouble?” T.J. asked, sitting at the lunch table with his arm around Cyrus. The two have been inseparable since they started going out at Andi’s party, and if they weren’t so cute with each other, every one of their friends would have been annoyed. 

“No, not that I’m aware of…” he said. “Unless they saw me take my anti-anxiety medication and thought I was doing something illegal.”

“My dad wrote you a doctor’s note, right?” Cyrus asked, seeing the glares from some of the surrounding tables aimed at him and T.J. and shrinking down slightly. 

“Yeah. It should be on file. Maybe they need to be reminded where it is?” He shrugged and shot a glare at the people staring at Cyrus and T.J. “It’s probably nothing, it’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” Buffy said, glaring at the same idiots jeering at their friends. “I’ll see you in class, I guess.”

She didn’t. 

Instead, Jonah Beck sat down in front of the principal and a cop. 

* * *

“I can’t believe this…” Jonah paced the room of the police station. “I can’t believe…”

“Jonah...honey, please, sit down…”

“Mom, you were a dealer in the 80s?! One level down from a kingpin, mom!” He sat down and put his head in his hands, trying to control his breathing. 

“Sweetie, your pills…” He pulled it out of his pocket and chucked it to the other side of the room. 

“Really?! You’re the one going to lecture me about drugs?!” 

“Jonah Beck, I am still your mother!”

“Are you?! Have-have you even seen the charges against you?! Twenty-five years minimum! You’re only going to get out when I’m an adult, past college, past...whatever!” 

“Whatever? Jonah, you’re still going to college.”

“With what?! They suspect my college fund to be created from your drug money. It’s all gone! All of our savings! Everything! And we didn’t have much to begin with!”

“Your father will find a good job,” she said, and she reached out to touch his hand when the security guard yelled out,

“No Touching!”

She pulled her hand back. “He’ll figure it out, and I still can call and we can all work it out together.”

“You can call him,” he said angrily. “But if you call me, you’ll just be wasting your minutes.”

* * *

“Jonah…” Cyrus sat across from him in his bedroom at the small apartment. “I know it’s hard for you...but we need to go over these suits and statements for the courtroom.” 

“Why even bother?” He mumbled. “The whole thing is going to shit anyways.” 

“You’re a character witness, Jonah.”

“It’s not going to change anything, Cyrus! From the instant my dad lost his job back when we were in middle school, things just kept getting worse and worse for us! And there’s...he’s at the bar nightly…I don’t see him come home, but I do see him passed out on that couch every morning when I get out to go to school.”

“I’m sorry...maybe my dad can-“

“No he can’t!” Jonah snapped, and sighed when Cyrus flinched. “I’m sorry, but…we can’t afford your dad anymore. We have no insurance, no money, and basically the last of my pills is the last of my pills.”

“Don’t say that, maybe my dad can-“

“We tried. We can’t. Just...just drop it.” 

Cyrus wanted to say more, it really looked like he wanted to say more, but didn’t. “Try this suit on, please?”

He sighed and took the suit, disappearing into the bathroom to try it on. Cyrus sighed and sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the other suit he brought and adjusting the collar. Since his mother’s initial arrest, he was more on edge, more unsteady. His father turned to alcohol to deal with being a single parent for the next several years, and Jonah was basically having to live for himself. 

Jonah came out of the bathroom and Cyrus got up to inspect him. “You look good, as expected,” he said, pairing a tie and helping Jonah tie it on after he got frustrated. “How are you doing?”

“Everything sucks. You and T.J. are basically banned from going on dates outdoors, we haven’t heard a word from Andi in a long time, Marty was outed and forced off of his teams…”

“I asked about you.”

“What happens to you guys affects me, because I care about you all…”

“Yeah, I know. Maybe you should focus on yourself for a bit,” Cyrus said. “You look like you need it.”

“Yeah...yeah…” he sighed. “Alright. I’m ready. Think my testimony will do anything?”

“I hope so. Buffy really needs character witnesses to counteract what Kira’s saying about her.”

* * *

“Alright Buffy, I hope you’re okay in there,” Jonah said over the phone while picking up some food over at the Taco Bell drive through.

“I mean...it’s Juvie. So...you know…fantastic.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault Jonah. You were one of the people trying to get me out and free, after all,” she said. 

“I wish I could’ve done more.”

“Well, you have your own things to deal with, right?”

“Ye-yeah,” he said. “I gotta head back to the school now, I picked up some Taco Bell for T.J. and Marty since they pretty much have been ‘banned’ from the cafeteria.”

“Banned?”

“You know that stupid article Kira wrote,” Jonah said. “And how homophobic this whole damn place is. If they walk into the cafeteria, they get pelted, and most places refuse to serve them at all, so I pick up the food and we eat in my car. Metcalf gave special permissions for their personal safety. 

“That whole place needs to be restructured. Okay, my time has run out on the phone. Call you next week?”

“I’ll try and get the money in your account so you can call us.” She hung up and he sighed at the pay window. “Now how the fuck am I going to get the extra money for that?” He muttered. 

“Jonah Beck?”

Jonah looked over and saw the guy working the window. “Hey, you’re T.J.’s old friend, right...Lester?” 

“His friend before he turned fag from his little boyfriend.”

“Dude, don’t say that. I’m still their friend.”

“Whatever,” he scoffed and took the cash for the food. “So, you said you needed extra cash?”

“Yeah…long story.”

“Don’t care about the story,” he said dismissively. “I know you have like, pills for your anxiety, right?”

“Yeah…”

“You know how much kids in high schools would pay for that? Any meds? Since I got expelled, I sell my Adderall for like, $30 a pill.”

“You’re telling me to sell my drugs?” Jonah frowned, thinking about his mom. “I dunno…”

“I’m not forcing you to do anything,” Lester said, handing over the burritos. “I’m just saying your anxiety meds would sell for a huge amount of money.”

“That’s...thanks for the food, Lester.”

“Good luck with your cash problems.”

Jonah couldn’t pull away from the drive through fast enough, the conversation playing in his head. He was already in debt in his personal account trying to pay for the last bottle of his meds and he was already rationing it. He might as well sell it so he can get some of his money back, and he’d be able to call Buffy…

“No! No, that’s dumb!” His mom was already in prison for thirty-five years for selling drugs and he was about to go the same route? He was not that stupid. 

* * *

“So it’s $40 per pill? That’s a rip off.”

“I’m running out, I can’t refill my prescription, and I’m the only person in this school who can get these,” Jonah said, sitting on the last row of the bleachers, watching T.J. run drills as the team rolled their eyes and called him names. “$40. Take it or leave it.”

“Fine! How many you have left?” 

“20.”

“I’ll take seven,” he said, pulling out the cash and paying Jonah before leaving. T.J. saw and frowned, going up to him. 

“What was that about?”

“Just making some extra cash,” he said. “Odd jobs.”

“You seem...jittery,” T.J. said, then watched the kid who left pop something in his mouth before walking out of the gym. “Please don’t tell me you sold your pills to that dude.”

“Fine. I won’t.” He said, getting up. 

“Beck, don’t you realize how bad this is?”

“What are they gonna do? Put me in prison? They already did that to two of the most important people in my life.”

“Jonah, your dad-“

“Is unemployed and drunk. Again. He called me Christopher last night. Clearly he doesn’t care about me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Is it? T.J., your family loves you and is still fine. Amber’s out there living her life up.”

“And I’m back here banned from fucking Burger King because of Cyrus.”

“You two aren’t even dating anymore.”

“Doesn’t matter. Because of him I lost my job, those kids, and I’m finally allowed to mop floors at the coffee shop as long as I don’t talk to anyone,” T.J. said. “My life isn’t exactly amazing.”

“Yeah? Better than mine.”

* * *

Jonah sat behind the back entrance of The Spoon, getting his breathing back under control. He missed his medication and how it helped him get control of his anxiety. He snapped at Cyrus a few days ago and hasn’t gone out to go after him to apologize. He didn’t feel like he was worth it.

“Yo, Jonah Beck!”

He cracked an eye open and groaned. “What do you want now, Lester?”

“You too my advice.”

“I’m not talking about that. Besides, I’m out of pills and I’m not okay.”

“Dude, you’re not medicating?” 

“I don’t have anything to medicate with,” he grumbled. “Nobody else has anxiety meds.”

“Well...I don’t have anxiety, but I can make you feel numb…”

Jonah opened his eyes and frowned. “What are you getting at?”

Lester smirked and pulled out an orange pill bottle, tossing it to him. “Nana passed away and she still had a ton of these. I’ll hook you up, one time offer. That one’s on me.”

“This..this is Oxy?”

“Yeah. Ultimate painkiller. You won’t feel anxious. You won’t feel anything.”

“I...I dunno.”

“Look, keep that bottle. Then, you can sell it, or you can take it. I’ll leave it up to you.” 

Jonah watched him walk away and he stared at the bottle addressed to Lester’s grandmother. He wasn’t an expert in reading prescriptions, but he could tell it was a strong dose. He could feel his heart rate go up again and he kept reading the small writing over and over again...maybe one wouldn’t hurt.

* * *

“You’re really selling this for $200?” A 25 year old man was inspecting the light brown acoustic guitar at a picnic table in Shadyside Park. 

“Yeah. For $20, I’ll add the case,” Jonah said, looking down at the slowly dying grass with his hands buried in his pockets. 

“This is a really good guitar. You’re really sure about selling this?”

“Might as well,” he mumbled. “I need the cash, and I’m not exactly playing anymore.”

The man hummed and put the guitar down. “That’s a shame. Bet you played epic songs on this baby.” He pulled out his wallet and handed over $220. “Thanks for this.”

“Yeah...thanks.” He watched the man go before another girl took up that place, easily over 18, probably still in college. 

“You’re Jonah Beck?”

“Yeah. Melissa G?”

She nodded. “Lester’s the one who gave you my number, right?”

“Yeah...you got the stuff.”

She smirked and pulled out an orange bottle. “$90.”

“No way! That’s a lot for just some oxy!”

“You want the oxy, its $90.” 

“I don’t have $90!”

“Bullshit,” she snorted. “That dude just paid you $200 for the guitar.”

“Yeah, but that’s also for bills and shit. My dad does jack, so I have to figure that out.”

She yawned and checked her fingernails. “Well, a bottle of oxy is $90. What can I do? Guess you’ll have to go without.”

“Go without?!” He stood up and slammed his hands on the table. “I’ve been on this shit for two months now! I need it! I can’t just...go without!”

“Relax, relax, pretty boy,” she said, studying him up and down. “Look, the oxy is $90. But I’ve got what’s essentially the same thing, but cheaper, and you take it differently.” 

He frowned and sat back down. “What are you talking about?”

She dug into her bag and pulled out a full kit, including needles. “This whole thing would last you the same as the oxy for only $45.”

“Is...is that heroin?” He hesitated. “Heroin feels like...maybe I’m going too far.”

“Please. Oxy is just heroin rebranded. Literally, they’re the same dang thing, but this one isn’t given out by doctors so it’s cheaper.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know how to properly do it…”

“I’ll show you,” she said. “First taste, on me.” 

* * *

Jonah was fidgeting as he waited for the last class to get through so he could go and shoot up. He hadn’t shot up since that morning, and he needed to go. He could feel everything coming back, and his anxiety felt stronger than usual. He needed to get out, he needed to feel nothing again, there was too much to feel-

“Jonah? You okay?” Cyrus looked over at him. He nodded tersely, not looking at him. “Are you sure? Because you don’t look like yourself…”

“I’m fine. Really fine. Never better.”

“Now that’s a lie,” he sighed. “You know, if you ever want to talk to anyone…”

“I’m fine. I don’t need help.” When the bell mercifully rang, he all but ran out of the classroom, out of the school, and found his favorite alley for privacy. It’s been a month since he started shooting up there and nobody found him yet. 

With practiced ease, he pulled the kit he had out of his bag, a repurposed insulin kit, and rolled up the sleeve of his hoodie. He barely paid attention to the track marks on his arm as he tied the rubber band around him and heated up the drug on a spoon with a lighter, keeping his eyes out so that nobody interrupted him. He could transfer the tar from the spoon to the needle without even looking and closed his eyes as he sank the needle in his skin, exhaling as he let the drug go into his bloodstream. He didn’t know if it was the drug that instantly relaxed him or the feeling of the needle going in, and he didn’t care. He loved that feeling. 

He needed more of that feeling. 

He needed another taste and started the process again, letting out a small groan as he shot up a second time…

Then a third…

Then the last thing he remembered was heating up the spoon again before the world went black.

* * *

He woke up in a sterile white room that smelled of ammonia. The lights were too bright and he started to get up but noticed he was hooked up to machines and an IV. That’s weird, he didn’t remember going to a hospital. He fumbled around, unable to find his phone, or his backpack...his backpack…

His backpack! The heart monitor picked up speed as he started panicking, worrying about the contents of his backpack. His laptop was in there! His books! And his kit! He needed his kit. There was a lot of feelings in his head right now and he needed his kit that very second! Where was his kit?! 

A nurse seemed to have noticed Jonah panicking and rushed in, calming down when she saw he was physically okay. “Mr. Beck? How are you feeling?” 

“M-my stuff! I need my stuff!”

“Your stuff is fine, your friend is watching over it.” Friend? Which friend? Lester didn’t sell to him anymore, he referred him to Maya. Was Maya with his stuff?

Then another figure came into the room, wearing a look of disappointment on his face that cut Jonah down to his core. “Cyrus…”

“Do you remember what happened?” He shook his head, and Cyrus sighed. “You ran out of class so fast, I got really worried. I thought you were in trouble or something...and then I found you in an alley passed out...with a needle in your arm.”

“...oh…”

“Oh? Is that really all you can say right now? Oh?!” Cyrus had tears prickling in the corners of his eyes and Jonah had to look away, disappointed in himself, in how Cyrus was looking at him. “How long?”

“What?”

“How long? Were you on these?”

Jonah was silent for a while, then he saw the look of resolve in Cyrus’s eyes. “Two months on prescription oxy...then I ran out of money for that and one month on...that.”

“Heroin?”

“Yeah...heroin.”

Cyrus sighed and sat in the chair. “You know...you could have died there...you ODed. I...I don’t want you to OD. I don’t want you to die.”

“You still care?”

“Of course I do,” he said. “I still love you.”

“You haven’t talked to me in months.”

“You didn’t let anyone talk to you in months,” Cyrus said. “And I…I thought you wanted space after the whole thing with your mom...and Buffy…I know you were close to her.”

“Yeah…”

“Have you talked to her?” He shook his head and Cyrus sighed. “She asks about you. I kept telling her you needed space. I think I was wrong.”

“Cyrus…”

“I’m serious. Do you still care about us?”

Jonah was stunned silent at that. “Of course I do...I-I love you guys. You helped me out when I was going through panic attacks and-“

“Why didn’t you let us help you this time?”

“Because…everyone was breaking apart and leaving. Marty spends his time alone in his house because he’s not allowed to play sports anymore. You and T.J. don’t talk to each other...nobody knows where Andi is because she doesn’t pick up her phone anymore, Amber is unreachable in France and Buffy...you know Buffy…” he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. “Everyone was too worried about their own things...I didn’t want them to worry about me.”

Cyrus walked over to the bed and took his hand. “You have no idea how much we all care about you.”

“Maybe I forgot…”

“No...you really have no idea.” He swallowed. “I wasn’t ever really planning on telling you this...but…here goes. Do you remember when I came out to you?”

“Yeah...your Bubbe Rose’s Shiva, right?”

“Yeah…I was absolutely terrified of coming out to you. Even though I already came out to Buffy and Andi…”

“Did you think I’d...I’d care?”

“Part of me did,” he said. “The other part of me…do you know how I figured out I was gay?” Jonah shook his head. “I was dating Iris and we kissed, and it was...it was awkward, but nothing absolutely horrible. Then...you sang that song for Andi, and you two kissed.”

“I remember that…”

“Yeah…you two kissed and you had this...this chemistry, you looked the way I thought I was supposed to feel when I kissed Iris, except I didn’t…and when I looked at you two, I felt horrible, like the worst person on the planet because I was jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Of Andi...Buffy thought I liked Andi when I started to come out to her the first time but…”

“You liked me?”

Cyrus took a deep breath. “Yeah…back then. Now, I love you like my friend, the crush gone, but…I spent so much time trying to get close to you, analyzing your facial expressions, partially deluding myself that one day you’d like me back...along the way, I got to really know you, and I realized that I didn’t have a crush on you anymore. But you became one of my closest friends, and you were a great asset to my life, and really became important to me.”

Jonah was quiet, then took his hand silently, squeezing it. He didn’t say much about that, but he didn’t have to. That simple action spoke more than he could imagine. He still loved Cyrus, and the fact that he admitted his crush didn’t affect how he felt about him. Instead, it made him feel deeper, that Cyrus really cared on a whole new level, that Cyrus trusted him with this information from their middle school days. 

“Cy...I need help…”

“I know. Do you want me to help?”

Jonah hesitated, then nodded. 

“Then I’ll help. I’ll talk to my dad and figure out how to help you best.”

* * *

The Goodmans ended up sending him to a rehab facility a few hours away from Shadyside. He spent one month there before coming back, still looking pale with dark circles under his eyes, but less jittery now that he had his anxiety medication back. He and Cyrus ended up hanging out more, most of the time at the Goodman households since Cyrus was publicly jeered every time he was out in public due to his sexuality. 

But things still weren’t perfect. He’d still go home to his father drunk off his ass and empty bottles all over the apartment. He’d do his best to clean up, to look like there was at least some order in his house, but it was like cleaning up in the middle of a hurricane. 

He saw his father sleeping off his pain, and it hurt that he’d rather do that than live with the fact he had a son. Sometimes, he’d finish whatever was left in a bottle before throwing it away, but it wouldn’t help. And then the bills started piling up again. His father had been fired again. And again...and they would lose the apartment if Jonah didn’t do anything. 

So he sold a pill...which soon became two, then three...but then he wasn’t taking the pills himself, and his anxiety and pain started again. And Maya would hang out behind the Spoon every Friday, that was her spot. It was an easy spot...and he needed to get rid of the pain...the pain was too much. He felt everything. Every particle of oxygen seemed to hit his skin like a punching bag. 

He tried to resist, he really, really tried. He wanted to resist, but the idea of pain being taken away...he had to go into another alley, he had to fill up another needle, tie off his circulation, and he needed to feel that needle in his skin again. 

And again.

And agai-

* * *

It had been two months since he came back from rehab when he woke up in a white hospital room again. He groaned in pain, feeling everything that was usually numb, and looked around for Cyrus. He didn’t want to see Cyrus’s disappointment again. 

Luckily, he didn’t have to. He saw T.J.’s angry face this time, standing at the end of the bed. 

“What the fuck Joanah?”

“T.J…”

“Look, I know this isn’t your first time. Cyrus and I don’t talk anymore, but he was able to hold me down long enough to tell me about you going to rehab the first time. He said it was more important that I know than how we felt about each other. You know how I felt when he told me you were in rehab for opioids?”

“You were disappointed in me?”

“I wanted to punch you in the face for doing something so goddamn stupid! For hurting yourself like that! For almost dying! But you were in rehab. You were going to get better! You were going to learn! And then…”

“Where was I?”

“Underneath the bleachers at Shadyside park,” T.J. said. “You don’t even remember where you were when you passed out. You see how fucked up that is, right?! That you can’t even remember where you were?!”

“I know.”

“Do you?! That you’re worrying all of us?!” He stopped yelling and took a few deep breaths. “Why did you do it again.”

“I wanted...I needed it to stop.”

“Needed what to stop?”

“Everything? It’s…my dad isn’t there anymore. He doesn’t feel anything. I needed that too. I needed the feeling to stop.” 

T.J. didn’t say anything. He listened, he nodded, he paced the room, and then he walked out. 

T.J. was gone for almost 30 minutes before he came back. “The nurse is calling Cyrus and his dad. I think we’re going to need to send you back to rehab. Any questions?”

Jonah shook his head, looking down. “Thank you for caring about me.”

“Jonah, I may have been a dick to you when we were kids, but I got to know you really well…I’ll always fucking care about you.” 

* * *

It didn’t take two weeks after his second time in rehab for Jonah to wake up in the hospital again, and he saw Marty at the end of the bed, talking on the phone. “Yeah...he just woke up. I’ll talk to you later...okay. Love you babe.” He hung up and looked at Jonah. “Hey buddy.”

“Was that Buffy?” Marty nodded. “What did she say?”

“She wants to make sure you’re okay…I would ask, but I think you’re not...not really.”

“Probably not,” he said. “I...I want to quit.”

“Then why do you go back?”

“Because it’s hard…It...it hurts when I’m not on it. But when I’m on it...I need more.”

Marty sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair. “How do I help you?” 

“Everyone else sent me to rehab…”

“The problem is when you come back. How do I make sure you’re okay when you come back?”

“I don’t know…but...I do try…do you believe me?”

Marty nodded slowly. “I do…I do believe you.”

* * *

It’s been a few weeks since Jonah’s been back this last time. He was tired all the time, and his newest approach was to stay away from his house as long as possible. He stayed in the library and various stores around Shadyside as long as he could, but he was tired. He always wore a hoodie and his eyes looked like they were permanently sunken in. He wanted to miss his mom, but he hated her for going down such a path early in her life that led him down the path he was on now. He also pitied and hated his dad, for deciding that alcohol was more important than his own son. 

All that Jonah could do was keep his head above water, to stay afloat, and he walked into The Spoon, feeling the need to eat to get rid of the emptiness he felt.

**********

_ Amber sat there perplexed. Jonah beck was never one to shrink back, and he always had a smile on his face. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he was drinking a black coffee. She kept looking, debating whether or not to go to him and talk to him. They did date for a while, before Amber came to terms with her sexuality and came out as a lesbian. She debated, and then got up and sat down in front of him. _

_ “Hey stranger,” she said with a gentle smile. _

_ He looked up. “Amber? I didn’t know you came back from Paris.” _

_ “Just did. Plane literally got here a few hours ago. Came here first thing. My bags are still in the car.” _

_ He gave her a weak smile, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s good to see you again. So, you’re here for the whole summer?” _

_ “Yeah, but I’ll be visiting and texting more next year. Now that the stupid school restrictions will lighten up.” _

_ “Yeah, it’d be good to see some updates from you. The radio silence was a little off.” _

_ “I’m so sorry about that,” she said that. “But I’ll be able to talk to you and the guys a lot more often.” _

_ “Oh...yeah…the guys.” _

_ She frowned. “I missed a lot, didn’t I?” _

_ “You have no idea,” he said with a dry chuckle. _


End file.
